1Dept. of Radiology, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States, 2Radiology Service, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA, United States

Myelin protons have ultrashort-lived MR signals and are not accessible
by clinical MRI. Such signals were probed herein using ultrashort echo time
imaging (UTE) and inversion-recovery UTE (IR-UTE) with bi-component analysis in
native and deuterated ovine brain specimens. UTE detected a fraction of ultrashort
T2 components (STC) of < 4% in native specimens, and up to ~54% in
deuterated specimens. Choice of inversion time in IR-UTE significantly affected
such bi-component signal decay behavior in native samples in heavily deuterated
samples. These results support the application of UTE and IR-UTE in
quantitative myelin imaging.

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